Merry Christmas, Judge!
by Voyager Tip
Summary: My first Christmas story. Here are two scenes, one scene before and one scene after the episode, "Hate the Picture, Love the Frame."


Author's Note: I don't own these characters, but I do love them, as we all do. Here is my first "Hardcastle and McCormick" Christmas story.

**Sunday, December 2, 1984**

After the church service ended, Frank Harper excused himself from his wife and hurried down the steps of the church to catch up with Mark McCormick.

"Mark, nice to see you again."

McCormick turned in surprise. "Hey Frank, how're you doing?"

"Good," he motioned to a woman as she approached, "look who I found?"

"Hi Mark, we wanted to invite you and Milt over next Sunday for an early Christmas dinner. We won't be here for the holiday remember? We're going on that cruise," Claudia Harper said.

Mark smiled, "you have no idea how good that sounds Claudia, I'll tell the judge."

"Good, and no excuses, we really want you to come."

"I'll get him there."

She smiled, "I bet you will, though I still haven't figured out how you do that."

Mark shrugged and half smiled at them, "to tell you the truth, I'm not sure myself Claudia," Mark answered with a shrug and a shake of his head. "Well, I better get going,"

"Christmas shopping?" Frank asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Mark answered.

"You don't have to get him anything you know," Frank began, then hesitated, "what I mean is, he's not expecting anything… you know he hasn't really celebrated Christmas in a long time."

"I got that, but I've got it under control."

Frank and Claudia exchanged glances before Claudia spoke, "you already got him something, didn't you?" her voice was almost giddy. "What is it?"

Mark smiled, "you'll have to wait until you get back from your cruise."

"We can keep a secret," she answered.

Mark shook his head and laughed, "no way". Then, he spoke again as he turned to walk away, "you can find out when you get back."

Frank and Claudia watched him climb into the Coyote.

"Didn't I tell ya?" Frank said

"Do you think Milt is getting him anything?" Claudia asked.

"I've tried to find out, but so far Milt's not talking."

"You know what that means don't you?"

"Yep, if he wasn't getting him anything, he would have told me THAT."

"It's so nice to think that Milt has someone to share his life with now."

"Too bad it will only be for two more years," Frank sighed.

"What makes you think that?" Claudia asked in surprise.

"Would you hang around with the guy who sent you to prison? Who is 30 years older than you were, if you didn't have to?" Frank asked. Clearly, he didn't think there was any chance that Mark McCormick would stick around after his parole was over. Still, he had to admit that it was nice to see that Mark seemed to appreciate the chance Hardcastle was giving him.

"Well, you never know, a lot can happen in two years," Claudia answered, just as certain that McCormick was here to stay.

- H&McC -

**December 25, 1984**

"Ho Ho Ho," the voice boomed down from above as Mark and Milt glanced upward.

"What was that?" Mark asked a second later.

Hardcastle shrugged his shoulders, "must've been Santa," he deadpanned.

Mark laughed as he shook his head, "you're something else Hardcastle."

"Of course I am," the judge answered immediately. "So, when are you going to give me my real present?"

Mark's expression froze. _He couldn't know, could he?_ he thought.

"I just gave it to you judge," he answered, gesturing to the framed picture.

Hardcastle studied him carefully.

"Frank gave me the impression that you had gotten me another present a few weeks ago," he finally said.

Mark glanced up at the ceiling and sighed. _Why can't I ever catch a break?_ he thought.

The judge watched his body language in silence.

"So you do have something else… you just lied to me kiddo."

Mark's jaw dropped, "What? No! Of course not."

"Well, it's pretty obvious you're lying to me now," Hardcastle said, his voice quiet and stern.

"I told you I spent all my money on wreaths judge, that was the truth."

"I know, but I'm talking about the present you told Frank about 2 or 3 weeks ago, before all this started."

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Oh."

"What do you mean, 'oh?'"

"That was nothing judge, really…."

"Frank seemed to think you were pretty happy about it. He was a little curious… he said you refused to tell him what it was, said he'd have to wait until he got back from the cruise." There was a long pause, "You think Frank and I don't talk?"

"Uh…."

"I don't like you lying to me." Milt said these words firmly, but he couldn't really find fault with the kid. He'd just hocked his beloved car, the Coyote to get Milt out of jail, and that act was way above and beyond anything Milt ever expected. No, his hard nosed attitude right now was because he was curious, and if he had to scare the kid in order to find out what the gift was, he was willing to do it.

Mark sighed. "I don't lie to you, that's number 1. You have to believe that. And as far as your present goes, yeah, I did get you something 3 weeks ago, but I just decided that it wasn't…."

"Wasn't what?" Milt asked in a quiet voice.

"Right...good enough. It just wasn't judge. I just didn't know how you were going to celebrate Christmas this year… I mean last year it just kind of slipped by, ya know? But then, last week when Sandy came by with his gift before he left for vacation, and it was so expensive…" Mark paused and sighed. "I just felt like I couldn't ever give you anything good enough. Really judge, that's all there was to it. I'm not lying."

"You don't have to compete with anyone kiddo."

"I don't really care what Sandy does judge, I'm not competing with him, but I do care what you think, and, I mean... just look at that great bike you got me…. you went all out….there's nothing I could give you …. you have a house full of stuff …, " Mark shook his head. "Can we stop talking about this now?"

"You've already given me what I need the most kiddo, anything else is just gravy."

Mark glanced down and smiled, "well, we're even then, because you've given me what I need the most too."

"But I really wanna know what you got me 3 weeks ago."

Mark sighed, "it's in the tree."

"I've been looking at the tree for a week now, there's nothing on the tree except ornaments and tinsel."

"In, not on judge," Mark answered as he moved toward the door and the judge followed him into the den.

Hardcastle watched as Mark walked to the tree and reached between 2 ornaments and pulled an envelope from deep inside the tree. He glanced down at it, then handed it to the judge.

The judge took the plain envelope, wondering what could be inside. _It's probably tickets to a game_, he thought, but they didn't really need those, he already had season passes to anything he really wanted to see. _Maybe it's movie tickets, I hope it's not some new age show, he knows I hate those things._

"Just open it so we can be done with this," Mark asked, clearly uncomfortable.

Milt sat down on the couch and opened the envelope and slid out 2 pieces of construction paper, one red and one green, each cut in the shape of an angel. Each one had a hole near the top and a loop of ribbon through the hole.

"What's this?" he asked as he removed them.

"Read them," Mark instructed as he turned on the familiar Christmas record and sat down to watch.

Hardcastle held the green card up and read "Family #7, boy age 12, basketball", then he read the other angel "Family #7, boy age 13, baseball, bat and glove".

A recording of Silent Night filled the silence between them.

"You bought these gifts for the kids?" Milt asked.

"Yeah, except I got 2 gloves, I figured they could play catch together. They're brothers, from the same family. Usually you have to turn in the tags when you bring back the gifts, but I asked if I could keep the tags."

Hardcastle stared at the angels, horrified that a lump was forming in his throat and that soon he might not be able to speak. He cleared his throat, then spoke in a rough voice, "this is... this is the nicest present I've gotten in a long time kiddo."

Mark closed his eyes and sighed in relief. "Merry Christmas, judge," he said softly and smiled.

But Hardcastle found that he couldn't answer in kind. He cleared his throat again and answered a bit loudly. "I think we've got the makings of a new tradition here," he said, and stood up and hung the angels on the tree.

Mark stood up too, "well, they don't sparkle," he observed.

"Yes they do kiddo."

They stood side by side for a few seconds while Silent Night ended, then the clock struck 12 midnight.

"Well, I guess Christmas is over. I think I'll hit the sack judge," Mark said and headed toward the door.

"Mark?"

McCormick stopped and turned back to face Hardcastle, surprised that the judge had called him by his first name.

"Yeah?"

"Merry Christmas."

"You too, judge."

Hardcastle watched as Mark turned and left, then he glanced back up at the two angels hung side by side on the tree. He eased himself down on the sofa, the lump still in his throat and his eyes misting up. As a tear spilled out of his eye, he shook his head... nobody he knew would've ever thought that McCormick could get to him like this. He hadn't felt the Christmas spirit like this in over 10 years. And to think the kid thought his gift wasn't right, or good enough.

"I really won the lottery with you kiddo," he whispered to himself.

Mark smiled to himself as he closed the door and started toward the Gatehouse. Hardcastle wanted to pretend he was tough and gruff and nasty, but Mark knew better. He had suspected the truth before, but now he was certain. The judge had a soft spot in his heart a mile wide, the truth was that he just couldn't admit it out loud.

The End :)


End file.
